I had composed a thoughtful reply to this and then my toddler came along and deleted it with one ill-timed poke at the keyboard, which may either have Meant Something or was just pure bad luck, depending on how one may be inclined.

Anyway, thanks for your remarks. I would have been in favor of continuing the discussion along the lines you mentioned, except I couldn't see a way to separate that from the confusion and misunderstandings, and in the end it seemed to me more prudent to just shut the thread down. I enjoy a lively debate, but not when it gets personal and starts to generate hurt feelings. Still, perhaps we can discuss these things more fruitfully another time, or in a different context...